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Be More Functional

Variety of tips and tricks that help my ADHD brain keep my life more or less together, and might help you, too.

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How to remember a new PIN / digit-based password

How to remember a new PIN / digit-based password

There's a set of digit mnemonics (created, as far as I know, by a Kevin Trudeau for some cassette-based memory-training course in 1995).

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Lukewarm water, not cold, is best for a burn

Lukewarm water, not cold, is best for a burn

Cold water also stops blood flowing to the area, and you need bloodflow to heal

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Keep your house less cluttered by dealing with greyspace

Keep your house less cluttered by dealing with greyspace

If you struggle with clutter, I bet you a billion dollars you don't have proper solutions for your greyspace stuff (grey as in, neither one thing nor the other)

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A few skincare tips / why you should avoid Lush

A few skincare tips / why you should avoid Lush

All citrus oils - lemon, grapefruit, tangerine, bergamot, yuzu - are irritants, and worse, they are UV-sensitising so if you use them during the day, you will increase the amount of damage sun does to you.

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Productivity tip: Interstitial journalling

Productivity tip: Interstitial journalling

Interstitial journalling is a minute or two of journalling that you do in between tasks to help you clear the old task out of your head and re-focus on the new task.

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The minor superpowers my food allergies give me

The minor superpowers my food allergies give me

This week's Whippet ended up collecting a couple of different articles on allergies/intolerances. I have a bunch of these, which is mostly annoying but gives me two superpowers. These are superpowers that you, who can eat anything, can easily grab for yourself, so I present them here:

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The secret to successful spinsterhood / living alone

The secret to successful spinsterhood / living alone

People usually put more effort into day-to-day life stuff when they do it with a partner. Successful spinsterhood is when you put that effort in for yourself.

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Never do sit-ups (seriously they're bad for your back)

Never do sit-ups (seriously they're bad for your back)

Stuart McGill, professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo, did an extensive series of studies, and they're just trash for your back.

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accepting invitations in advance and getting overwhelmed

Think carefully before accepting invitations that are weeks or months in advance

When someone invites you to something in the distant future, ask: Would I say Yes to it if it was this weekend?

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it gets harder to focus for long periods as you age

Your ability to focus declines after 30 (it’s not just because smartphones)

There are two totally separate systems that govern attention: your ability to maintain focus on the thing (‘enhancement’), and your ability to tune out other things (‘suppression’).